164 INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND WAGES
of labor; wages may be very low, and yet the labor be so
inefficient, from causes previously explained, that the cost of
labor may be extremely high. The English contractors who
made the French railways could have engaged any number
of French laborers at one-half the wages that were paid to
English navvies; but so superior is the physical strength of
an Englishman, that it was proved that one English navvy
would do as much work as two French laborers. In this case,
therefore, the cost of French labor would be as great as the
cost of English labor, altho the wages of the English laborer
were twice as great as those paid in France.
The chairman of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce
lately asserted that formerly the district round that town
made nearly all the locks which were used throughout the
world ; but that at the present time the industrial appliances
of America were so superior to our own, that America
imported the metal of which locks are made from Stafford-
shire, and exported the manufactured locks to England,
underselling us in our own market. Upon inquiry it is found
that all the reasons which are given to account for this
superiority of American industry, either directly or indi-
rectly, arise from the imperfect education of our people.
Altho higher wages are paid in the United States than in
England, yet labor is said to be less costly in the former
country, because the workmen there possess a quicker intel-
ligence, greater ingenuity, and are more ready to avail them-
selves of improved mechanical appliances.
The following quotation from the writings of J. Schoen-
hof is practically the same as the doctrine of our present-
day industrial statesmanship. He said :!
. + « Tho cheap labor gets less remuneration per diem, its
cheapness is no saving to the employers. More hands are
required to do the same amount of work that better-paid
labor does at the same cost.
It is a fortunate sign of the times that we are at last
1 “The Economy of High Wages,” J. Schoenhof; Putnam, New York, 1892;
pp. 22, 31, 35, 63-65.
